About Elizabeth Hoyt

Elizabeth Hoyt is a USA Today bestselling author of historical romance. She also writes deliciously fun contemporary romance under the name Julia Harper. Elizabeth lives in central Illinois with three untrained dogs, two angelic but bickering children, and one long-suffering husband. Please visit her websites for chapter excerpts, book extras, and author appearances: www.elizabethhoyt.com and www.juliaharper.com. Also, listen to an audio interview by Hoyt.

About To Desire a Devil

Reynaud St. Aubyn has spent the last seven years in hellish captivity. Now half mad with fever he bursts into his ancestral home and demands his due. Can this wild-looking man truly be the last earl’s heir, thought murdered by Indians years ago? Beatrice Corning, the niece of the present earl, is a proper English miss. But she has a secret: No real man has ever excited her more than the handsome youth in the portrait in her uncle’s home. Suddenly, that very man is here, in the flesh-and luring her into his bed. Only Beatrice can see past Reynaud’s savagery to the noble man inside. For his part, Reynaud is drawn to this lovely lady, even as he is suspicious of her loyalty to her uncle. But can Beatrice’s love tame a man who will stop at nothing to regain his title-even if it means sacrificing her innocence?

To read an excerpt go here.

My Review of

Genre: Fiction – Historical Romance
Finished: November 10, 2009
Rating: 3 Stars

The year is 1765, and the place England. The son of an earl and heir to the title Earl of Blanchard, Reynaud St. Aubyn, once a carefree youth, went to war where he was reportedly murdered by Indians in the American Colonies. After the death of his father and without Reynaud there to inherit, the title passed on to the Uncle of Beatrice Corning. Beatrice, protective of her kind and not-too-healthy uncle, as well as a great deal many others, are shocked when a haggard and sick looking Reynaud burst through the doors at tea demanding his father. It was almost too much to tell him of his father’s death. With the heir of the title returned, Beatrice has no idea what will happen to her and her uncle.

Beatrice’s feelings are further complicated by her infatuation with a man she has only seen in a painting. This painting she is so fond of looking at is of Reynaud before he went off to fight. She cannot consolidate her feelings for the handsome young man in the picture to the disheveled and brutish rouge who now wants to reclaim his title and estate.

Reynaud has a great many wounds that need healing. He suffered a great deal of horror while in captivity and suffers from trauma and flashbacks that put him always on his guard. As such, he is not an easy one to get close to and Beatrice, despite his threatening of her very livelihood, tries to help him. She wants to see him return to the smiling youth she is so familiar with via his painting. Others feel that Reynaud needs to be reaccelerated to aristocratic society. Feelings soon begin to grow between Beatrice and Reynaud. It seems she could be just what he needs to return to his old self. Of course, not everyone hopes for the best for them. There are others with invested interests in keeping Reynaud from regaining his title, which sweeps the pair up into political intrigue and danger.

I generally liked the story, especially Reynaud and his dramatic story. I always like a man with a bit of a complex, I suppose. Beatrice is likable as far as female romance leads go, as they can all too often exhibit a cookie-cutter vapidity that I find puts me off of the romance genre as a whole. Though honestly I feel that the romance aspect moved a little too fast and in a manner that wasn’t very realistic. It was just too easy and too forced. And when Reynaud proposed, the dialogue between the two was unbelievable and simple. I like things to be drawn out. There was something about the moment that rang as unbelievable to me.

All in all, though, it was a fun read. The passion is hot and the romance is sweet. Ladies, Reynaud is one passionate man who knows how to work the body of a woman… Beatrice, what a lucky woman! Dangerous and romantic at the same time, Reynaud can be as rough and demanding as gentle and smooth. And fortunately, there is a happy ending to be found, and I do so love happily ever after.

Giveaway!!

I have been given the amazing opportunity by Hachette Book Group to give out 5 copies of To Desire a Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbidromantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Rate my blog at Blogged. Click here or find the graphic on the sidebar under ‘ranks.’
6.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
7.) Comment on and rate (rating is found in the header of the post) any of my previous book reviews and leave me a comment telling me that you have.
8.) Add me to your Technorati favorites: .
9.) Add me on LibraryThing, Good Reads, Shelfari, Book Blogs, or BookBlips and leave a comment telling me where you’ve added me and (if you can), your username/name.
10.) Answer this question: have you ever loved someone by sight alone before meeting them?

If you do all of the above, you will get ten entries. That’s ten chances to win.

Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on November 25th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. No PO Boxes. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.

Other Participating Sites:

http://myoverstuffedbookshelf.blogspot.com
http://justanothernewblog.blogspot.com
http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com
http://www.readingwithmonie.com
http://ajourneyofbooks.blogspot.com
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http://startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com
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Author of Across the Endless River

How much do we know for certain about the life of Sacagawea? The answer is: almost nothing. She was born “around 1788.” She was abducted by the Hidatsa “when she was about 12.” The date of her death is similarly uncertain: the prevailing view is that she died in 1812 at Fort Manuel Lisa on the Missouri, but others contend that she lived well into her 90s and died at the Wind River Reservation in 1884. Even the pronunciation and meaning of her name are still disputed, a reflection of the unknowable transliteration that both Clark and Lewis tried to capture in written syllables.

Lewis & Clark — The Written Record Shapes All
The most reliable primary documents that have come down to us concerning Sacagawea are, of course, the journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, through which she has entered the public imagination as an improbable but key player on the stage of American history. But even the journals, famed as they are, give us only fleeting glimpses of this young woman. She was one of Toussaint Charbonneau’s several “squaws”, a usage that covered everything from absolute servitude to common law marriage. In historical accounts, she is most frequently described as his “wife”, but the fact remains that we have no way of knowing the human contours of their relationship.

The instances of her mentions in the journals are themselves full of dramatic details: a difficult labor for her first child, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, born on February 11, 1805 in the bitter cold far-northern reaches of the Upper Missouri; her dire illness and near death in June of that year, when Lewis dosed her attentively from his meager medicine kit; her vote as an equal member of the expedition about the location of their winter camp once they reached the Pacific; her insistence at being allowed to accompany the party dispatched by Clark to the shore of the Pacific to investigate what meat might be recovered from a beached whale.

All of these scenes have survived in the clear and dispassionate prose of the two captains, and while they offer tantalizing glimpses of how Sacagawea reacted under pressure, they of course come from the pens of those whose business it was to give the expedition shape in daily journals. While history is indeed written by the conquerors, perhaps here it would be more apt to say that history is first written by those who can write. How would she have described the captains? Nothing certain remains from Sacagawea’s oral tradition, so the accounts of those whose language included an alphabet were bound to prevail.

Sacagawea, Repository of Legends
Even so, the degree to which the slender and infrequent mentions of Sacagawea in the Lewis & Clark journals have subsequently been weighed down with meaning is astounding. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, and gathering steam well into the twentieth, there developed an elaborate literature of wonder, almost of awe, around her being. She has come to represent resilience, courage, patience, loving motherhood, feminine independence . . . the list is virtually endless. It has been said that more images of her adorn public places than that of any other American woman. The latest iteration of her imagined likeness, the young mother bearing her papoose who graces the U.S. dollar coin, is as close as American culture is ever likely to come to an indigenous Madonna and Child.

And yet most of this is pure fabrication, a projection of our own changing needs and perceptions of the past. I am reminded of the elaborate hagiography that has built up in France around Joan of Arc, just enough of it based on the startling and dramatic facts of her life to lay the groundwork for a complete mythology. In that sense, Lewis & Clark is our own founding myth, and the individual actors in its story assume the proportions of legend as we embroider the fragile facts we have with our own imaginings. Sacagawea dances around the edges of the narrative: innocent, strong, pure of heart, and ultimately unknowable, an undying receptacle for our dreams about both past and future. The beaten and abducted young squaw stands alongside the mother of a mixed-race son, the determined woman who saved Lewis & Clark from failure by bargaining for horses with the tribe from which she had been torn. Could any refracted image we fashion to express our hopes be more ambiguous, or more captivating?

©2009 Thad Carhart, author of Across the Endless River

Author Bio
Thad Carhart, author of Across the Endless River, is a dual citizen of of the United States and Ireland. He lives in Paris with his wife, the photographer Simo Neri, and their two children.
For more information please visit www.thadcarhart.com

Sylvia Engdahl is best known as the author of highly-acclaimed Young Adult science fiction novels, one of which was a Newbery Honor book and a finalist for the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year in the Rediscovery category. However, her trilogy Children of the Star, originally written for teens, was republished as adult SF, and she is now writing fiction only for adults.

Engdahl is a strong advocate of space colonization and has maintained a widely-read space section of her website for many years. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, and currently works as a freelance editor of nonfiction anthologies.

For more information about Sylvia Engdahl, visit her website here. If you would like to read up more about Stewards of the Flame, visit the book website here.

About Stewards of the Flame

When burned-out starship captain Jesse Sanders is seized by a dictatorial medical regime and detained on the colony planet Undine, he has no idea that he is about to be plunged into a bewildering new life that will involve ordeals and joys beyond anything he has ever imagined, as well as the love of a woman with powers that seem superhuman. Still less does he suspect that he must soon take responsibility for the lives of people he has come to care about and the preservation of their hopes for the future of humankind.

This controversial novel—winner of a bronze medal in the 2008 Independent Publisher (IPPY) book awards—deals with government-imposed health care, with end-of-life issues, and with the so-called paranormal powers of the human mind. Despite being set in the distant future on another world, it’s not intended just for science fiction fans. Blogcritics said, “The story is compelling, and drew me in from the first few pages. . . . Stewards of the Flame is a thought-provoking novel that may make you question the authority and direction of modern Western medical practices. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading genre fiction with some substance to it.”

Guest Post with Sylvia Engdahl

I’ve always had ideas about the future, and about humankind’s relation to the universe, that I wanted very much to express. More often than not, my view of such issues contrasts with prevailing views. I’m inspired mainly by the wish to explore them, but I want to do it through the thoughts and feelings of characters who have to deal with them, rather than in the abstract. It’s generally hard for me to think of events — action — through which the characters can confront them; I’ve come up with story ideas during only a few short periods of my life. But when I do get a plot idea, then I’m completely absorbed in the story until it is finished.

I don’t write, or even read, typical science fiction. My novels are not action/adventure stories, and they focus neither on strange environments nor on the details of hypothetical technologies. They’re about characters portrayed like real people of today. Stewards of the Flame is set on a world colonized in the distant future by settlers from Earth. Its problems are more like today’s problems, extended just a little beyond today’s reality, than how the distant future will really be. But the story required a separate planet with a history of prior generations, and interstellar travel isn’t going to occur for centuries considering that we’re still dragging our feet on colonizing Mars, so I had no choice about its placement in time. In many ways the novel appeals more to readers of mainstream fiction than science fiction fans, but there is just no way to market a book about the future on another planet as mainstream; no matter what I say about it, it gets an SF genre label, making it hard for readers not looking for that genre to find. I hate the “genre” concept, but that’s another topic. . . .

I combined two issues I wanted to explore in fiction when writing Stewards of the Flame. In the first place, what might be the logical conclusion of today’s trend toward government control of health care? My own feeling is that it could end in the takeover of the government (at least in a small colony) by medical authorities, depriving the citizens of their personal freedom. The people of the story live under what is essentially a dictatorship, but it wasn’t imposed on the population by force — they voted it in through misguided placement of health issues above all other values. The protagonists can’t aim to overthrow it because it was established democratically, so they oppose it in another way, which involves the development of “paranormal” mind powers. I don’t think of such powers as weird or supernatural. To me, they represent the future evolution of humankind. My view of the future is less pessimistic than the one common today, and I’m impatient with fiction that suggests we’re not progressing. That, more than anything, impels me to create fiction of my own.

The world ends on 11.15.09 – that’s when award-winning indie comic publisher Heske Horror (www.coldbloodedchillers.com) releases its anticipated doomsday anthology “2012: Final Prayer.”

Just like Armageddon, this release promises to be a “global event” with cataclysmic graphic tales, short stories and brief essays from creators from around the world: US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Scotland and South Africa.

Click this URL to see what lies ahead …

http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=17811

or

Click the UK Variant cover below to see what lies ahead …

Amongst girlfriends.

I have been blessed with many good friends in my life. When I was in my thirties and forties I had five best girlfriends. I truly loved each of these ladies and they loved me. Each one thought that I was their best friend and to me they were all my best friends. I guess there was one that stood out more than the other and if they should read this, they would automatically say, “That was me.”

At other times in my life, such as my teenage years, I also had a group of wonderful girlfriends. These girlfriends were the ones I grew up with and I loved them all and they loved me. I am happy to say that two still remain my close friends but the others moved and we lost touch.

Then there were the wonderful friends I had raising my kids; we shared our stories about bringing up babies and developed a social life around them. They knew my children and I knew theirs and the bond was strong.

So where are all of these girlfriends now? I must admit that the majority of them have disappeared from my life and two, sadly, are deceased. Perhaps I am the cause of why they are no longer in my life. For example, one turned out to have a difficult life and manipulated me into being there for her during these times but excluding me from good times. It became an unpleasant friendship according to her terms.

Another friend was the cheapest woman I ever met. She would not even treat herself to a glass of water and she had lots of money. It became discouraging as she sat in front of me with her mouth watering as I ordered dinner. In the beginning I would treat her, and then I realized I was only playing into her neurosis. She liked sitting with me but refused to order. The friendship broke up when she saw the man I was crazy about with another woman and told me. It devastated me at the time and found it not to be necessary for her to tell me.

My best high school best friend disappeared as soon as we got married. When she came back it was thrilling, but no sooner did we connect, she would disappear again; and the same disappearance happened with my other best high school friend who I have not seen or heard from since high school.

Now I have new friends and at 73 years old which is my age, I am lucky to connect with these terrific ladies. They have come to me in the last two years and each one is divine. One is my last boyfriend’s prior lady, and the others I met at Mah Jongg. I stopped playing for thirty five years and now we are have come full circle. We have also connected on a different level and have become friends. We all have our individual lives but when we see each other we thoroughly enjoy one another and have fun. They are also wonderfully supportive of me as an author.

So is this the way it is supposed to be? Is it me who has let them go or is it them that have let me go? Is it because we change over the years or is it because I have not been a good friend or accepting of their ways.

I often thought how great it would be to bring all of my old friends together. Maybe we can all get in a circle and play what we used to play in grammar school. I don’t like you because: But even told the truth, at this late date would we change or should I just be grateful for who I was and who they were at the time. Are relationships meant to last?

For more information about Carol Sue Gershman’s blog tour here.

Story strumpet, tome loving tart, eccentric night owl…these are all words that can describe freelance writer and erotic romance author Roxanne Rhoads.

When not fulfilling one the many roles being a wife and mother of three require, Roxanne’s world revolves around words…reading them, writing them, editing them, and talking about them. In addition to writing her own stories she loves to read and review what others write. She operates a book review site, Fang-tastic Books, dedicated to her favorite type of book- anything paranormal. Her favorite genres are paranormal romance and urban fantasy but she’ll read just about anything featuring vampires, ghosts, witches and whatnot.

Roxanne writes everything from articles to web content as a freelance writer and poet. Her erotic and romance stories and poems have appeared in Playgirl Magazine, several print anthologies, in ebooks and on numerous Web sites including: JustusRoux.com, OystersandChocolate.com, TheEroticWoman.com, FortheGirls.com, AssociatedContent.com/roxanne, BareBackMag.com, LucreziaMagazine.com, and RuthiesClub.com

She has several ebooks available through Eternal Press: Tasty Christmas Treats, Eternal Desire, the soon to be published Insatiable and 2 of her short paranormal erotic stories appear in the anthology Sexy Paranormal Bedtime Stories. All of these can be purchased in print at Amazon.com.

Her story “The First Brick” appears in Lasting Lust: An Anthology of Kinky Couples in Love available at RavenousRomance.com

A double shot of her paranormal erotica- Torrid Teasers Volume 59 is available through Whiskey Creek Press Torrid.

When not reading or writing Roxanne loves to hang out with her family, craft, garden and search for unique vintage finds.

You can visit her at www.roxannesrealm.blogspot.com and www.fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com.

About Eternal Desire

Liz Beth, a paranormal researcher, is haunted by the seductive vampire, Quillon, who may or may not be real. She arrives in New Orleans the week of Halloween to search for the elusive vampire of her dreams and instead encounters a handsome stranger, Christien, with whom she begins a passionate affair with.

In New Orleans at Halloween anything is possible.

To read a blurb, go here.

View the trailer:

The novella is scheduled to be released October 7, 2009 through EternalPress.ca.
E-books can be purchased at EternalPress.ca, Fictionwise.com and BarnesandNoble.com
Print copies can be purchased at Amazon.com

Guest Blog by Roxanne Rhoads

I guess I’ve always been attracted to the dark side, even when I was really young my favorite things were witchy, spooky and creepy. I can remember rushing home every day after to school to watch Scooby Doo my all time favorite cartoon. I laugh at my husband because he said he couldn’t watch Scooby when he was little because it scared him. He still isn’t a big fan of scary movies either. Though he can handle going to all the crazy Halloween haunted houses when I can’t. Weird.

Anyway, I digress.

When I was a child my bookshelves were lined with all kinds of creepy, spooky and scary ghost stories and kids books about Halloween and anything just a little supernatural. By the time I was 10 I was already reading Steven King and Dean Koontz.

I loved watching Tales from the Darkside, Twilight Zone, and of course- reruns of The Munsters and The Addams Family. Morticia Addams and Lily Munster were idols of mine, dark, scary, beautiful. Especially the original Morticia (not so much Angelica Houston).

Then later came Elvira- now there was a frightening figure of femininity that men everywhere lusted after.

The “Otherness” portrayed by these women was always intensely sexual. Lily was a nurturing mother but like mother nature her sexuality was apparent. Morticia was always appeared so slinky and darkly beautiful, and the refreshing flirtation between her and Gomez is something to hope for in a relationship isn’t it? And Elvira, well, she was just sex incarnate wasn’t she?

Did you know that Lily and Herman Munster were the first television couple to actually appear in bed together and Morticia and Gomez were always sexy and flirtatious while all the other couples on television sit coms during that time period (1960s) had no apparent sex lives and were never seen in bed together. With television showing such bland lifestyles how could you not want dark sexiness in your world?

For a little girl who dreamed of wild times and fantastic places emulating the dark beauties promised a much more interesting life.

And now look at the popularity of paranormal erotica and paranormal erotic romance today. These books are flying off the shelves. A lot of people are catching on to the allure of the dark side of sex and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

For those fans of vampires and other supernatural sexiness I hope you’ll like my new novella, Eternal Desire.

Here’s a quick blurb:

Liz Beth, a paranormal researcher, is haunted by the seductive vampire, Quillon, who may or may not be real. She arrives in New Orleans the week of Halloween to search for the elusive vampire of her dreams and instead encounters a handsome stranger, Christien, with whom she begins a passionate affair with.

In New Orleans at Halloween anything is possible.

E-books can be purchased at EternalPress.ca, Fictionwise.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Print copies can be purchased at Amazon.com

Would you like to win a free pdf of Eternal Desire?

Then tell me: What character, from books, movies, or television is the most darkly sexual? What supernatural character would you gladly cross over to the darkside for?

I have loved a lot of vampires, but on television I really loved Henry from Blood Ties. He portrayed such a strong character that didn’t apologize for who or what he was. Now I am loving Mitchell from Being Human. Dark and brooding and I love the hint of the Irish accent that is apparent from time to time.

Make sure to leave your contact info so I can send you the book if you win. Thanks.

Bob Brooker and Kaye O’Dougherty have been adventuring together for a lot of years now. They first met at a recording studio on 42nd Street. Yes, that 42nd Street. They recorded a commercial for E.J. Korvette’s, who went out of business soon thereafter.

Bob is an old saloon singer who, as Bobby Brookes, recorded for Victor and Capital back in the day. Kaye has trouble carrying a tune in a bucket. Nevertheless, over the years, as Brooker and O’Dougherty, the two have collaborated on a variety of theater projects, performing, writing, directing, managing, and producing. In keeping with the changing times, they have even created a cyber alter-ego named eBobb.

Recently, Bob and Kaye both took long-overdue turns at being rather mature college kids. Kaye now holds a Bachelors Degree in the Humanities from St. Peter’s College in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Bob was graduated magna cum laude from Montclair State University with a BA in Theater, and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

For more information:
Footballforlovers.com
Blog

About Football is for Lovers

The good news is that Football is for Lovers makes the basics so . . . well, so basic that learning the game is easy as eating an ice cream cone. And just as much fun.

With anecdotes, illustrations, and a lot of laughs, Football is for Lovers not only makes it easy to understand the game, but also shows you how to put an end to the TV clicker wars, improve your relationship, and spice up your love life.

It just takes looking at the game of football a little bit differently.

Then again, since Football is for Lovers contains references to football great Jerry Rice in a pink tutu, images of paintings by French artist Jean Dubuffet, an alert about the dangers of speaking Northeastern Mandarin, an explanation of the value of M & M’s in a relationship, and a Burma Shave sign, to say it looks at football “a little bit differently” may be something of an understatement.

But if your football-obsessed partner has been making you a ‘football widow’ from August NFL pre-season through the February Super-Bowl, thus convincing you that you hate football, this little book may be just the ‘different look’ you need to discover that, after all, Football really is for Lovers!

Guest Post by Robert Brooker & Kathleen O’Dougherty

When you hear that a shared cause can keep a relationship flourishing, more than likely what springs to mind is sharing Grand Things like stamping out global hunger, or achieving world peace.

Sharing football is likely not to have made it into your top ten.

But maybe football deserves a recount.

And no: we’re not just saying that because we wrote Football is for Lovers.

Actually, it’s more why we wrote Football is for Lovers.

It occurred to us that many of you may not have made the connection between the condition of your relationship and the condition of the planet.

Which brings us back to what we see as the key to a truly electric relationship: sharing.

Sadly, we appear to be to the ill-manner born. From the time we’re mere babes, we’re pretty much gimme sort of guys. Ever see the frown on the face of a toddler when she’s told she has to share her Tommy the Talking Truck with her playmate?

Ah, but then we fall in love. And we realize – amazingly! – that we are actually seeing someone else as being at least as important to us as we are to ourselves!!!

Wow!!!

Better than that: it doesn’t just feel good. It feels positively EUPHORIC!!!

Egos melt. Suddenly, we want to give our dearly beloved the world!! Hey, he can have our Tommy the Talking Truck if he wants it.

Because now we see – no, make that now we feel – how wonderful sharing can be.

But we’re willing to bet that you still don’t see the connection between Tommy, football, and World Peace.

Well, there is one.

And since we’re also betting that you’re feeling just a bit skeptical along about now, we’re bringing in the Big Guns: Vladimir Solovyov. Hey, with a name like that, you just gotta take him seriously, yes?

Well, you should. He’s considered to be one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century.

Vladimir said, “. . . sexual love is the highest flowering of individual life.” Oh, that Vladimir!

But more than that, he said that love is “the beginning of the embodiment of true ideal humanity.”

That is, Vladimir sees this human physical love of ours as the doorway to that true ideal humanity that really would feed the hungry and end all war.

Didn’t know you had it in you, did you?!

Okay. So love is a heck of a lot more heavyweight than you thought it was. But still: why football?

We say, why not? Isn’t it a grand way to ease yourself into the bigger stuff? It can rev up all that sharing energy you’ll need for those anti-war protests and collecting canned goods to send to Wall Street.

Don’t understand the game? If you’re a little shaky on the fundamentals, Football is for Lovers will teach you all you need to know. Quick and easy.

So let yourself go! Cheer! Hug! Roll around on the rug a little.

The world is counting on you!

Many thanks to Valorie for giving me air time on her blog!

William Marshal, the charismatic star of The Greatest Knight is something of a paradox. He was an ordinary guy when he started out. He was born in the English county of Wiltshire in 1147AD – His father’s fourth child, the product of a second marriage. There wasn’t much left in the family coffers by way of inheritance by the time William came along. However, his father found an education in the military for him and the young man proved so skilled with lance and sword that he was soon earning a fortune on the tourney circuits of medieval Europe and his talents brought him to the attention of the King and Queen of England. He went on to serve in both their households. He was the tutor in chivalry to their eldest son and travelled extensively throughout Europe and the Middle East. On his return from his travels, he married a wealthy and beautiful heiress and turned his attention to raising a family and helping to steer England through some very troubled times indeed.

William’s career was stellar by the yardstick of any century, his tale a true one of rags to riches. When he died, his name was renowned throughout the known world.

Slowly, through the accumulated dust and detritus of passing centuries, that name became forgotten, except by a few. His life story, written down within a few years of his death in a rhyming family history more than 19,000 lines long, was lost for seven centuries. It re-emerged among a pile of old manuscripts for sale in 19th century France where Historian Paul Meyer saw the poem and realised what a treasure he had rediscovered. He translated it into modern French, but it didn’t have an audience beyond academic circles. William Marshal, the greatest knight of the Middle Ages, slept on, seldom noticed, his effigy earning the occasional passing glance from casual visitors to the Temple Church in London where he was buried with two of his sons. There were occasional disturbances. William was dug up and reburied just a few years after his death because Henry III wanted to expand the church, so although the effigy is there, no one is quite sure where William’s bones actually lie – although somewhere in the fabric is a given. The church suffered bomb damage during World War II and the effigy was slightly damaged, but survived.

A few years ago, however, there was a major change. Dan Brown wrote The Da Vinci Code – anyone not heard of it? The story takes the reader to the Temple church in London and mentions the effigies of four knights lying on the floor of the nave. Suddenly William’s tomb was a place of pilgrimage! The first time I visited William at the Temple Church, there was only me and a lady from Australia, who was there visiting a different tomb. The following year, I was joined by an American couple who stood in front of the effigies of William and his eldest son, discussing whether or not one of them had been a crusader. I got into conversation with them and the wife said with a smile ‘You know why we’re here don’t you?’ I shook my head. ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ At that point, the book had only just begun to make waves and the couple were part of the advance guard. I told them who William really was. When it came to my next pilgrimage a further year on, the Temple Church was by now packed with tourists embarked upon the ‘Da Vinci Code tour’ and William and his sons were the centre of attention. There must be thousands of photo albums round the world featuring snapshots of proud visitors crouched beside the effigy of one of the greatest men England has ever produced, but all these people know is that he’s one of their tick boxes on the Da Vinci Code experience. These days William and his sons have had to be protected from all the attention by rope barriers. There were none when I first went to pay my respects.

I find it very fascinating. William was an unknown who became famous and then forgotten again. Now he’s famous but anonymous. I am hoping that The Greatest Knight is going to change that state of affairs big-time!

About the Author

Elizabeth Chadwick lives near Nottingham with her husband and two sons. She is the author of 17 historical novels, including Lords of the White Castle, Shadows and Strongholds, A Place Beyond Courage, The Scarlet Lion, the Winter Mantle, and the Falcons of Montebard, four of which have been shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Awards. Much of her research is carried out as a member of Regia Anglorum, an early medieval re-enactment society with the emphasis on accurately re-creating the past. She won a Betty Trask Award for The Wild Hunt, her first novel.

Giveaway!!

closed
I have been given the amazing opportunity by Sourcebooks to give out 2 copies of The Greatest Knight. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbidromantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Rate my blog at Blogged. Click here or find the graphic on the sidebar under ‘ranks.’
6.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
7.) Comment on and rate (rating is found in the header of the post) any of my previous book reviews and leave me a comment telling me that you have.
8.) Add me to your Technorati favorites: .
9.) Add me on LibraryThing, Good Reads, Shelfari, Book Blogs, or BookBlips and leave a comment telling me where you’ve added me and (if you can), your username/name.
10.) Answer this question: what makes a man a ‘knight in shining armor’?

If you do all of the above, you will get ten entries. That’s ten chances to win.

Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on October 10th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.

About Choices Meant For Kings
Chariss is in danger. Her geasa is hampered by the effects of a friend’s marriage. The dashing Nigel Taiman hides something from her, yet demands she stay at his family’s estate where he and her wizard guardian intend to keep her safe. But the sorcerer Lord Drake and Julette The Betrayer know she’s there, and their monstrous army marches that way. When prophecies stack up to threaten an arrogant deity, Chariss must choose between the dragon that courts her and the ostracized kings of the Southlands for help. Evil stalks her at every turn and madness creeps over the goddess who guides her. Can an orphan-turned-Protector resist the dark side of her heritage? Or will she sacrifice all to keep her god-charge safe?

Read an exclusive excerpt

As the soldier stepped toward him, Nigel reached out his arm and caught him by the neck. He slammed the captain against the far wall. He pinned him there with his body, leaning against the man as if he could crush the wind from him with his presence.

He brought his face close to the soldier’s ear and spoke lowly, fiercely, so that no one could have overheard him. The menace and intent behind the words was as surprising to the captain as the words themselves.

“I asked you to accompany [Chariss] on this journey tomorrow because I have faith in your sword, and until this moment I trusted you to keep your distance from her. Now, I find her down here at your side with a look upon your face that suggests more than you realize. So help me, Naegling, the only thing that stays my hand is how displeased she would be if she learned that I sliced you open.”

“The look you see is merely my concern for her honor. Nothing more.”

“I’m not a fool. And I’ll use every last piece of Arcana’s treasury to pay the prophets to justify my reasons for marrying that woman, so you can unconcern yourself with her honor.”

Hrazon stepped off the staircase then and saw Nigel pressed against his guard.

“I still believe you’re one of the best soldiers Arcana’s ever seen,” Nigel continued, “and I want you at her side for this journey, but, so help me, Naegling, she comes back alive and well and not confused in the least about her affections for me, or I will string you up from a tree in the orchard and attach your intestines to your horse’s saddle before I send it—”

Hrazon cleared his throat. “Excuse me. Is there an issue here I should address?”

Good stories inspire readers. It only makes sense that good characters inspire readers, too. When those readers are little girls, young ladies, struggling women, older matriarchs seeking something they can’t pinpoint, etc., the good character should, in my opinion, be a strong female lead. When invited to post an article here as part of my current online book tour supporting Choices Meant for Kings, I was asked to comment on why I felt that strong female characters are important in fiction novels. I don’t just think they’re important—I think they’re valuable gems worth mining when selecting reading material.

When I was younger, I read Helen Keller, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lucy Montgomery, and, as I got into college, Maya Angelou, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, and the list goes on. (If you want to read the original feminist writer, I encourage you to read Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, keeping in mind the 1848 society in which she lived and the conventions she rubbed against in making Mrs. Helen Graham the kick-butt heroine she is.) But having a strong feminine mind behind a strong female character doesn’t mean you have to push a feminist agenda. You could just be offering moral support, good values, a simple message, a heartfelt word of love for your fellow woman, a guide toward womanhood, etc. Women of any age can reach out to a fiction novel character for any number of lessons. As an author, I want those women to find a source of strength in the main character I’ve written.

In the summer and fall of 2008, I faced some trials in my personal life that I don’t need to hash out here. A couple of life-altering events were just about wrapped up after many months of paperwork and court dates. A “newer” health event was in full swing so I was visiting a doctor’s office or treatment center almost daily. I felt run down and haggard. The release of my second novel was postponed again and again… You get the picture. A dear friend of mine named Laura Crawford (proprietor of Crawford Writing and Marketing in Minnesota) very kindly read one of my pity-party e-mails and wrote back some wonderful words of support. She pointed out that I’d created (in her estimation) the strongest female character in fantasy literature today. She told me that Chariss, the heroine in my Choices novels, wasn’t born out of thin air, but came from me. Therefore, some of Chariss’s strength was in me. I could beat everything I was going through.

So, without realizing it, I had created a strong female character who could inspire me as well as my readers. It still makes me smile to think about it. And it strengthens my belief that women can look to fictional characters for courageous ideas, moments of inspiration, and, yes, strength.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Sandy Lender will be stopping at other places along the net, so follow her tour for a chance to win a first edition, autographed, hard copy edition of the first book in the trilogy Choices Meant for Gods. All you have to do is comment here and on her other tour stops.

So, without further ado:

Thanks for inviting me to share my werewolf world at Morbid Romantic where I wish to dispel the myth that werewolves are the bad guys! Well, some are, but some really are not—think sexy, naked humans, who are very comfortable in their skin, human and wolf alike.

In my latest book, To Tempt the Wolf, Tessa Anderson has a mission: rescue her brother from prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Hunter Greymere has a mission too: well, he was supposed to be rescuing his sister, but a little accident happens and now he’s lying on an Oregon beach right before a winter storm rolls in. The same beach that Tessa goes to find firewood before the storm hits.

What do they have in common? Wolves. He’s one, and she’s obsessed with them, photographing them whenever she gets a chance. But other wolves are obsessed with her right back.

Welcome to my world of wolves—werewolves that is. But when they’re in their wolf form, they’re just like wolves, except they have human sensibilities. And what does this mean? No matter what they’d like to do as wolves…their humanity steps in. On the other hand, their wolf instincts stay with them whether as man or wolf. Not only that, they have their “werewolf” side to consider—no matter what, they can’t be exposed for what they are. So three sides really.

That makes for a lot of man! And woman!

I was reading another author’s blog on how she wrote about horses in her story, but didn’t really know much about them. So I’ll make a confession also. I’ve never once met a werewolf. But I’m sure if I did, I’d find him just like the heroes in my stories. At least I hope I would. I wouldn’t want to run into the nastier werewolf characters in my stories for sure.

“But wait!” you say. “You write that your werewolves are like real wolves. Do you know any personally?”

Okay, no, I admit I’ve watched video tapes of them, both in social settings and…ahem, settings that should not have been caught on tape—a little privacy folks. But it did give me an idea for Seduced by the Wolf that I used to good purpose. I’ve also listened to numerous tapes on howling—forget music as a backdrop for story writing. And I’ve studied numerous photos on their behavior. Plus, I’ve read a lot about them from wolf biologists’ points of view. And yes, I’ve seen them in zoos before. But those aren’t the kind of wolves I’m creating in my stories. Although no, I haven’t sat and played with their pups or gotten to know a real wild wolf.

Urban fantasy is fun to create. I’m not writing about Dances with Wolves here, where the wolves are real, but werewolves who appear to be real wolves.

Plus, I raised tons of dogs, and they still exhibit some of the wolf behavior. When my standard poodles would play with each other, they would snarl, and bite, and growl, just like when we would play tug of war with our Labrador retriever. And when we played chase with our Afghan hound, she was terrifying!!! They’re from Afghanistan and are bred for speed and hunting agility. One nip in the back, and after that, she’d have us pinned to the ground. In every instance, they were playing, just as wolves do. But it’s a way for them to show who’s boss also in the pack. And chasing and taking each other down? It’s a way to keep their hunting skills in good working order.

I love dogs. I love wolves. And I LOVE werewolves. The perfect, sexy beasts are great protective guys to have around year round!

So what do you think? If you had a chance to go on a wilderness trip with a guy who really knew how to take care of a girl, would you consider a werewolf hunk as your guide? Companion? …and More???

Hope you check out just how hunky werewolves can be, and shatter that myth that they’re just scary old monstrous beasts.

Thanks for dropping by, and again, thanks to Valorie for having me!

Terry Spear

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male.”

To Tempt the Wolf—In Stores September 1

Hunter Greymore is a lupus garou, a grey werewolf. Hoping to keep a low profile at Tessa’s cabin on the coast, he’s drawn into her life—and into her bed. His animal instincts war with his human half, but in the end, the only thing he can do about this fascinating, adorable woman is to leave her forever —unless she becomes one of them.

About the Author
A retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, award-winning author Terry Spear has an MBA from Monmouth College. An eclectic writer, she dabbles in the paranormal as well as writing historical and true life stories for both teen and adult audiences. Spear lives in Crawford, Texas. Her 2008 Sourcebooks Casablanca release, Heart of the Wolf was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly. Destiny of the Wolf and To Tempt the Wolf are in stores now, and more are on the way: The Legend of the White Wolf (February 2010) and Seduction of the Wolf (August 2010). For more information please visit Terry at the following places:
http://www.terryspear.com
http://twitter.com/TerrySpear
http://www.facebook.com/terry.spear
http://www.myspace.com/terryspear
http://www.terry-spear.blogspot.com
http://casablancaauthors.blogspot.com
http://www.wickedlyromantic.blogspot.com
http://shapeshifterromance.wordpress.com

Giveaway!
closed
Would you like the chance to win a copy of To Tempt the Wolf by Terry Spear? Of course you would, and this is your chance thanks to Sourcebooks. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbidromantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Rate my blog at Blogged. Click here or find the graphic on the sidebar under ‘ranks.’
6.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
7.) Comment on and rate (rating is found in the header of the post) any of my previous book reviews and leave me a comment telling me that you have.
8.) Add me to your Technorati favorites: .
9.) Add me on LibraryThing, Good Reads, Shelfari, Book Blogs, or BookBlips and leave a comment telling me where you’ve added me and (if you can), your username/name.
10.) Answer this question: what do you think is the most interesting thing about werewolves?

If you do all of the above, you will get ten entries. That’s ten chances to win.

Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on September 29th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.